October 2, 2015 at 10:51 am
[caption id="attachment_983" align="alignright" width="311"]
Ear tags such as this one help indentify GPS-collared moose.[/caption]
By IFW Education Coordinator Lisa Kane
On May 8, 2015 a cow moose wearing a radio collar and ear tag #33 was hit and killed by a car on Route 25 in Gorham, ME. After hitting the moose, the car then struck a light pole - knocking out power in the area for a couple of hours. Luckily, the operator suffered only minor injuries, while the vehicle sustained heavy damage.
The cow moose had been in good condition and was pregnant with a calf that, unfortunately, also died from the crash. The damage to the moose was the direct result from the collision with a car, which completely separated one of her front shoulders.
Because of the radio collar and numbered ear tag, Maine biologists and wardens attending the crash notified MDIFW moose biologist Lee Kantar with the information. Lee was a bit surprised, since the moose wearing radio collars in his ongoing study were a couple hundred miles north of Gorham. After inspecting the retrieved collar, it was determined to be from a New Hampshire moose!
New Hampshire and Maine biologists began moose radio collaring work in January 2014 and will continue through at least 2019. The 2 states are collaborating to assess adult cow and calf survival, as well as identifying mortality causes and the role of winter ticks on moose survival. NH has 45 collared moose in their study, while Maine started with 70 collared animals.
[caption id="attachment_987" align="alignleft" width="462"]
GPS collars are basically an adjustable leather collar with a battery-powered global positioning system unit attached.[/caption]
The cow moose hit in Gorham in May 2015 (wearing ear tag #33) was initially collared in Milan, NH in January 2014. The New Hampshire Fish and Game Department (NHFG) capture crew identified her only as an adult cow – she was not aged more specifically at the time of her capture/collaring. She was not pregnant via a pregnancy blood test taken at the time of capture, and she remained in the same general area of Milan for the winter and early spring.
Starting about May 20th, 2014, her collar began signaling that she was moving south; by May 23rd she had moved 7 miles south to Berlin, NH; then by May 31st she had moved another 5.5 miles southeast to Shelburne, NH. After May 31st, 2014, NHFG biologists could not detect a signal from her anywhere near the NH study area. In June, they listened for her collar from the following sites with no detection: the top of Mount Success in Success, NH, the top of Wildcat Mountain in Pinkham's Grant, NH (moose project personnel were given a free gondola ride up/down the mountain), from Rt. 16 in Gorham to Durham, NH, and finally from Mt. Agamenticus in York County Maine.
On July 23rd, a telemetry flight with LightHawk was used to search Franklin and Oxford Counties, ME, but #33 was still not detected. (LightHawk is non-profit organization that partners highly skilled private pilots and their planes with conservation initiatives to provide exceptional flying services at no cost.) Later in July, areas in Franklin and Oxford County that may have been missed during the flight were searched from the ground, but still no detection of #33. From July 2014 on New Hampshire biologists were not sure of #33's status, was she alive and outside the search area or had the collar simply stopped working?
On May 8, 2015, when she was hit and killed by the car in Gorham, #33 had travelled approximately 90 miles straight distance between her original capture site and where she was hit by the vehicle. But how many more miles had she ranged along her route? Her radio collar was still working, but she had evidently travelled and spent the winter of 2014-15 outside the search areas.
In a past 2002-2005 NHGF moose research project, where approximately 100 moose were collared in the Milan, NH area, two 2-year old cows dispersed across the NH border into southern Maine in June and October 2004. Both were hit by cars and killed on I-95 in Kennebunk. So the surprising dispersal of New Hampshire moose to southern Maine has been documented before.
Then, in early June of this year, yet another moose wearing a NHFG collar was hit and killed off Exit 37 in Scarborough. That moose, #29, was a GPS-wearing cow collared in January of 2014 as a calf in Success, NH, where she spent the next 1.5 years. This past mid-May to mid-June, she moved from Success to just east of Conway, NH; then to Standish, ME; south to Westbrook and Gorham; then finally to Scarborough. This was another 90+ miles straight distance! She spent several weeks just north of I-95 in Scarborough. Maine Regional wildlife biologist Cory Stearns reported she was hit off the Exit 37 ramp around 1:30am on a Friday night. There was no human injury, Turnpike maintenance disposed of the carcass, and a district game warden recovered the collar and ear tag, which were returned to New Hampshire biologists.
GPS collars for moose cost about $600, each, with grant funding most often providing the budget for these projects. The collaring projects in both states are providing wildlife biologists with much information about how moose live, reproduce and die; but there are a lot of unanswered questions. Why are NH moose traveling such great distances to Maine, especially to the crowded York and Cumberland Counties of southern Maine? Why not north to Franklin or Somerset counties, which appear to be much more ‘moosey’? These movements, by moose standards, are very large and significant Biologists from both states are puzzled and have no definite answers at this time. Perhaps new information will come to light as the moose radio collar studies in both states continue.
Ear tags such as this one help indentify GPS-collared moose.[/caption]
By IFW Education Coordinator Lisa Kane
On May 8, 2015 a cow moose wearing a radio collar and ear tag #33 was hit and killed by a car on Route 25 in Gorham, ME. After hitting the moose, the car then struck a light pole - knocking out power in the area for a couple of hours. Luckily, the operator suffered only minor injuries, while the vehicle sustained heavy damage.
The cow moose had been in good condition and was pregnant with a calf that, unfortunately, also died from the crash. The damage to the moose was the direct result from the collision with a car, which completely separated one of her front shoulders.
Because of the radio collar and numbered ear tag, Maine biologists and wardens attending the crash notified MDIFW moose biologist Lee Kantar with the information. Lee was a bit surprised, since the moose wearing radio collars in his ongoing study were a couple hundred miles north of Gorham. After inspecting the retrieved collar, it was determined to be from a New Hampshire moose!
New Hampshire and Maine biologists began moose radio collaring work in January 2014 and will continue through at least 2019. The 2 states are collaborating to assess adult cow and calf survival, as well as identifying mortality causes and the role of winter ticks on moose survival. NH has 45 collared moose in their study, while Maine started with 70 collared animals.
[caption id="attachment_987" align="alignleft" width="462"]
GPS collars are basically an adjustable leather collar with a battery-powered global positioning system unit attached.[/caption]
The cow moose hit in Gorham in May 2015 (wearing ear tag #33) was initially collared in Milan, NH in January 2014. The New Hampshire Fish and Game Department (NHFG) capture crew identified her only as an adult cow – she was not aged more specifically at the time of her capture/collaring. She was not pregnant via a pregnancy blood test taken at the time of capture, and she remained in the same general area of Milan for the winter and early spring.
Starting about May 20th, 2014, her collar began signaling that she was moving south; by May 23rd she had moved 7 miles south to Berlin, NH; then by May 31st she had moved another 5.5 miles southeast to Shelburne, NH. After May 31st, 2014, NHFG biologists could not detect a signal from her anywhere near the NH study area. In June, they listened for her collar from the following sites with no detection: the top of Mount Success in Success, NH, the top of Wildcat Mountain in Pinkham's Grant, NH (moose project personnel were given a free gondola ride up/down the mountain), from Rt. 16 in Gorham to Durham, NH, and finally from Mt. Agamenticus in York County Maine.
On July 23rd, a telemetry flight with LightHawk was used to search Franklin and Oxford Counties, ME, but #33 was still not detected. (LightHawk is non-profit organization that partners highly skilled private pilots and their planes with conservation initiatives to provide exceptional flying services at no cost.) Later in July, areas in Franklin and Oxford County that may have been missed during the flight were searched from the ground, but still no detection of #33. From July 2014 on New Hampshire biologists were not sure of #33's status, was she alive and outside the search area or had the collar simply stopped working?
On May 8, 2015, when she was hit and killed by the car in Gorham, #33 had travelled approximately 90 miles straight distance between her original capture site and where she was hit by the vehicle. But how many more miles had she ranged along her route? Her radio collar was still working, but she had evidently travelled and spent the winter of 2014-15 outside the search areas.
In a past 2002-2005 NHGF moose research project, where approximately 100 moose were collared in the Milan, NH area, two 2-year old cows dispersed across the NH border into southern Maine in June and October 2004. Both were hit by cars and killed on I-95 in Kennebunk. So the surprising dispersal of New Hampshire moose to southern Maine has been documented before.
Then, in early June of this year, yet another moose wearing a NHFG collar was hit and killed off Exit 37 in Scarborough. That moose, #29, was a GPS-wearing cow collared in January of 2014 as a calf in Success, NH, where she spent the next 1.5 years. This past mid-May to mid-June, she moved from Success to just east of Conway, NH; then to Standish, ME; south to Westbrook and Gorham; then finally to Scarborough. This was another 90+ miles straight distance! She spent several weeks just north of I-95 in Scarborough. Maine Regional wildlife biologist Cory Stearns reported she was hit off the Exit 37 ramp around 1:30am on a Friday night. There was no human injury, Turnpike maintenance disposed of the carcass, and a district game warden recovered the collar and ear tag, which were returned to New Hampshire biologists.
GPS collars for moose cost about $600, each, with grant funding most often providing the budget for these projects. The collaring projects in both states are providing wildlife biologists with much information about how moose live, reproduce and die; but there are a lot of unanswered questions. Why are NH moose traveling such great distances to Maine, especially to the crowded York and Cumberland Counties of southern Maine? Why not north to Franklin or Somerset counties, which appear to be much more ‘moosey’? These movements, by moose standards, are very large and significant Biologists from both states are puzzled and have no definite answers at this time. Perhaps new information will come to light as the moose radio collar studies in both states continue.